updated 08:07 am EDT, Thu October 31, 2013

Panasonic to continue plasma display sales until March 2014

Panasonic has confirmed it is pulling out of the plasma television market, after many rumors stating it would do so over the course of the last year. The company will end production of plasma display panels in December of this year, and will be ceasing operations in three factories used for manufacturing by the end of March 2014.

Original rumors from March revealed that the company was "considering" the prospect of ceasing production, after it made estimates that plasma HDTV sales in 2015 to 2016 would be just half that of the 2009 to 2010 financial year. A vice president for Panasonic Display revealed in April that the company was halting its plasma panel research, something that was later denied by a vice president at Panasonic USA.

A new statement from the company, picked up by The Verge, confirms the fate of plasma display production at Panasonic. The statement claims that it is closing production "in order to create a business structure that can respond to changes in the business environment and to accelerate the growth strategy of the company." Large-screen LCDs and "severe price competition in the global market brought on by the Lehman Shock in September 2008" are blamed for the move away from Plasma production, and will end sales of plasma TVs for consumers and plasma panels for production at the end of its current financial year.